


Footage Not Found

by SasuNarufan13



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Halloween Oneshot, Harry's POV, Harry's parents still live, Past Character Death, urban exploring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27313810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SasuNarufan13/pseuds/SasuNarufan13
Summary: For the Halloween special, Harry decides to explore an abandoned mansion. He just didn't expect to encounter someone else there.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter
Comments: 21
Kudos: 60





	Footage Not Found

**Author's Note:**

> Author's note: I finally return with a new HP story and it's a Halloween themed one, so prepare yourselves LOL This one was inspired by some videos of urban explorers I watched. I just gave a Halloween spin to it. So keep that in mind when you read this one!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling owns it.
> 
> I wish you all a Happy Halloween and I hope you'll like this oneshot!

**Footage Not Found**

"So normally Ron would be joining me like normal, but unfortunately for him, he got roped into handing out sweets for the few kids that might show up at their door tonight," Harry said lightly, carefully manoeuvring his way through the tall grass.

The grass reached up to his hips, swaying in the breeze. Even with the moon shining, it was rather dark and he needed to look carefully where he placed his feet. He looked up to check his position, noticing he wasn't that far away anymore from the gate. One of the most difficult parts of the evening was nearly over then: reaching the delipidated manor without being seen.

Considering how removed this place was from the other houses, the chances of being caught were slim but it was still not something he was willing to risk. He and Ron had been nearly caught twice before and he could do without that fright tonight.

"You'll have to do it with only me for this video then," he continued, pausing at the edge of the treeline to ensure he couldn't hear anyone. "And as we mentioned in our earlier video, this one is a Halloween special. Depending on how much time I can spend at this location, it'll either still be Halloween by the time I upload this or not. Either way, I hope you'll enjoy this special and consider subscribing to us if you want."

Aiming the camera higher to get a good shot at the large building, he went on, "We tried to do research on this building as we normally do, but surprisingly this time we didn't find much. We couldn't even find whether it has been repurposed in the past or not. All we found, was that it had belonged to some rich family at some point and that there has been a fire. That's basically all."

Neither of them was in the habit of revealing the location or even the name of the building in order to keep the locations secured from looters or simply people looking to destroy stuff, but it was a tad frustrating that they hadn't been able to find much about this building. One would think with how historical it looked that the internet would be able to provide some answers, but the information they had been able to find was sparse at best. They hadn't been able to find out how long it had been abandoned either, so Harry was hoping that the structure would hold on long enough for him to film everything.

He and Ron had become interested in urban exploring after watching several videos of urban explorers on YouTube. After a couple of months of watching those videos, they had decided to try urban exploring themselves, doing research in order to find abandoned places. It hadn't been easy at first, but once they had got the hang of it and knew where to look, it had become easier to find abandoned places.

After a little while they had figured they could try their hand at making their own urban exploring videos and the channel _Mystic History_ was born. They had gathered quite the fanbase so far, people eager to watch which place they would visit next and it felt good to read their enthusiastic comments every time.

For their Halloween special they had considered doing a livestream, but had changed their mind after realising that there was a chance they might come across personal papers and they didn't want to risk revealing potential sensitive information to the viewers.

"Okay, let's see if we can find a way inside," Harry said and carefully wriggled his way through the metal gates which stood ajar.

One half of it had already loosened from the brick wall near the top and he eyed it carefully, making sure not to brush against the gates too much. He and Ron already had had a close call before when the gate of an old Victorian styled house had nearly fallen down on them. Back then they had each other to keep an eye out for potential danger, now he was on his own. Mum would kill him if he ended up injuring himself. The only reason she allowed him this particular hobby was because dad had taken him to the store to buy some protective gear like steel toed boots and thick gloves.

The front door turned out to be a bust; it was shut tight and he didn't dare to ram his shoulder against it, so instead he followed the porch to the right side of the huge manor where nature clearly had overtaken everything. Ivy was climbing high up the walls and he spent a moment filming it before he carefully waded his way through the tall grass, avoiding the thorny rose bushes he could make out in the moonlight.

"Oh wow," he said in awe when he reached the backside of the manor.

A huge garden sprawled out in front of him, several large trees forming some kind of natural wall. There was a marble fountain in the middle, with a mermaid holding a large cone as the statue on it and he imagined it must have looked particularly beautiful when the water was still running through it. He approached it to get a better look at it, noting the cracked pathway. Weed was growing through the cracks, covering entire tiles from view.

The pathway split in two around the marble basin and continued on deeper into the garden, forming a straight line between the grass and old flowerbeds. The entire garden was covered with old leaves and puddles of last night's bout of rain. The path branched off to the left, leading to a smaller building, but when he tried the door of that one, it didn't open either. He peered through the window and could make out some sort of table with stuff still placed on it, but it was too dark to make out what exactly all those items were.

Perhaps this had been the family's garden shed? Albeit a fancier looking one with its brick walls and dark red roof.

"Too bad I can't get inside this building, but let's see if I can find a way inside the manor," he announced and retraced his steps, shivering slightly when the wind picked up, turning chillier.

A heavy bout of rain had been predicted for right after midnight, so he hoped to wrap up the shooting in just three hours. His backpack should be rainproof, but he rather not take any risks with his camera.

"Looks like I'm lucky, guys," he grinned when he spotted the open window.

The frame was groaning quietly every time the wind played with it and he studied it for a moment, surprised that it was just opened as opposed to being shattered. Had other urban explorers been here through another entrance then? Well, at least this was handier to get into the manor than it would have been if he had to look out for broken glass.

He placed the camera on the windowsill and heaved himself up before swinging his legs inside first. His feet carefully touched the floor and he unearthed a torch from his bag, clicking on the button underneath. White light promptly cut a thin beam across the floor, showing part of a faded brown carpet.

Grabbing the camera with one hand, he took the time to look around, careful to aim the torchlight only at the walls. The manor was rather isolated, but better to be safe than sorry.

There was a rather large, dark wooden table in the middle of the room with six chairs around it. The stuffed filling was gaping through some cuts, the chairs looking like someone had taken a knife to them. One single vase with dead flowers remained in the middle of the table, surrounded by faded rose petals. The carpet was some kind of brown colour and appeared to have some sort of design woven into it, but even with the torchlight he had a hard time making out what exactly it should be and he gave up, focusing on the walls next.

He whistled lowly at the sight of a large fireplace, its white colour not yet dulled by years of neglect. Some burnt down wood still remained in the hearth, but the picture frames above it were empty for some reason. There was a painting of a regal looking blonde woman, who had her hair done up in a high bun. She was dressed in a deep blue dress, but the painting had been slashed in several places, making Harry frown.

He really hated it when people thought it was fun to destroy stuff in abandoned houses. Just leave the furniture and other items alone, how difficult was that?

"Looks like I'm not the only one who found this place," he said, tilting the camera back so that it could capture the painting in full.

He took one more panoramic shot of the old dining room before moving onwards; dust particles dancing in the light of the torch as he silently made his way into the large hallway.

There was a staircase on his right and the front door was right across from him; the small window at the top letting in some moonlight. The floor here existed out of black and white tiles and some paint of the walls had cracked, littering the tiles with its dirty white flakes. There was another small table right next to the door with two vases this time, but both were empty. A shallow bowl stood in front of the two large vases and he figured that one had been used to house keys.

On each side of the front door were two rooms, both of which had their doors open and he went into the left one first, immediately realising he had stepped into the living room. Everything was still present here, from the large couch to the leather armchairs to the bookcases lining the walls with another fireplace, this time made of some white rose marble, flanked by two bookcases. The shelves were still filled with books and other knickknacks like porcelain statues of farm animals and empty candle holders.

"This looks like the room is just waiting for the owners to return," he remarked softly, dust stirred up around his feet as he made his way from one wall to the other.

Three tea cups were even left behind on the table with an empty plate resting in the middle. For biscuits perhaps? The cups were rather lovely; a baby blue with a white line running along the top and the bottom.

"You can see the gate from this window," he said, halting in front of the large window.

The glass ran from the ceiling down to the floor and was only covered by a sheer through curtain. He pushed that aside to get a better look outside, at the gates gleaming in the moonlight. A shadow swooped low across the ground and he caught sight of an owl before it disappeared between the trees.

"Golden chandelier," he muttered, raising the camera to the ceiling. "Pretty sure those are real candles, but I'm not going to try to climb up on the table to check it closely. Don't want to risk the table to break."

So far he hadn't encountered a television or a computer, but he had spotted some outlets so the manor couldn't have been abandoned for that very long yet.

"I wonder if they were in the process of modernising this house," he mused aloud, walking back to the door, eager to check out the other room. "I've spotted some outlets but no television."

He stepped back in the hallway, but froze when something moved in the opposite room. Shit, was someone inside? Another urban explorer or someone with other intentions?

Silently, slowly, he stepped back in the living room, shutting off his torchlight, debating what he should do know. There was no way the other person hadn't heard him. He'd been talking aloud just now, so unless the other one was deaf, his presence was known.

What to do now then? Hide somewhere in this room and wait for the other one to leave first? That didn't sound like such a safe idea, but going back out in the hallway sounded even less appealing. The window here couldn't be opened either, because it was one of those old ones still, so that option was out too.

Fuck, what was he supposed to do now?

Footsteps approaching the living room had him holding his breath and pressing himself firmly against the wall behind the door. He would have to wait until the other one was further into the room and then he would make a run for it. If he was quick, he would be out of here before the other one could catch on to him.

"Hello?"

His heartbeat sped up at the sound of a male voice close by.

"Are you still here?" the man – he didn't sound that old, was maybe around Harry's age? – asked uncertainly. "I – didn't mean to frighten you. I'm just curious."

Whoever he was, he didn't sound like a dangerous lunatic, but hell what did Harry know?

"I'm just looking around this place. You too?"

Another urban explorer?

Apprehensively, he stepped from behind the door, keeping his camera at shoulder height as he walked into view.

A guy around his age stood in the middle of the hallway; his bright blond hair almost glowing in the little bit of moonlight that managed to worm its way through the dirty windowpane in the door. His eyes were light, either grey or light blue, Harry couldn't tell in the dim light, and he was dressed in dark trousers and a light blue shirt.

He didn't have a bag or a camera with him, making Harry wonder what exactly he was doing here. If he was an urban explorer, then he was one who apparently didn't see the need to film or take pictures of the place.

The guy smiled tentatively at him; his hands resting on each side. "I apologise if I scared you; I didn't expect to see anyone else here tonight."

"I didn't expect to see someone else here either," Harry admitted. "You're an urban explorer too?"

"Not sure if that's how you could call me, but I just like looking around here," the blond shrugged.

Harry frowned. "You've been here before?"

"Oh yes, loads of times," the guy answered lightly. "What can I say, I love this place."

"You're from here?" Harry asked intrigued.

"Yep, grew up here. You?"

"Next town over," Harry said. "I took a bus and then walked here. Wasn't easy to find."

"No, I guess not, given how removed this house is from the others," the other one laughed. "But don't let me stop you from exploring the house."

"You could join me," Harry suggested. "If you don't mind being filmed occasionally that is."

He and Ron had occasionally joined some other urban explorers, so he wasn't a stranger to exploring a house with someone else. Granted, they had exchanged messages with those other explorers first before meeting up, but this guy didn't look shady, so what could be the harm?

"No, I don't mind," the guy assured him. "The name's Draco, by the way."

"Harry," he introduced himself and together they walked into the other room, which turned out to be some kind of parlour, a white table in the middle with two chairs opposite from each other.

This one also had a large window looking out on the gates and Harry spent some time filming the paintings on the wall, which looked quite medieval and showed animals that he couldn't immediately identify.

"I thought this would be the kitchen," he remarked, watching a spider scurry across the floor, disappearing into a crack in the right corner.

"No, that one is on the other side of the manor, but you first have to go up a floor and take another staircase down to find it," Draco informed him. "A bit of an inane place considering the dining room is here, but who knows what the architect was thinking?" He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

Green eyes regarded him with interest. "You know quite a bit about this place, apparently. Do you know why it was abandoned? I tried to do some research, but I basically found nothing."

Draco eyed him curiously. "You didn't? That's odd. How did you try to look up information about this place?"

"A blog my friend and I follow mentioned an old manor in this town, so I just typed in manor and Raven's Lane," Harry started but was interrupted by Draco, who started snickering. "What?" he asked, a bit miffed.

"No wonder you couldn't find anything. You should have searched for Rose Park Street; that's how this street was called before they changed the name," Draco informed him amused. "The manor was abandoned before the name change, so you're not going to find anything about it if you're searching for Raven's Lane."

"Huh." Damn, neither he nor Ron had considered the possibility that the street might have changed name. That explained why they had had such a hard time finding any kind of decent information about this place.

He followed Draco up the staircase, which had been made out of some white marble as well. Really, this place seemed to consist entirely out of marble and wood apparently.

"Can you tell me more about this place then? Seeing as you grew up here," Harry added, excited to finally get some real information about this gorgeous house.

He would have to edit out the street names of course and anything else that might be sensitive information, but if he could give their viewers some kind of decent background he would already be more than happy.

"Sure." Draco shrugged, mentioning for the dark haired man to follow him. "This manor was built around two hundred years ago and has been owned by the same family for generations. Twenty years ago renovations were finally started to modernise this place."

They arrived on the landing and immediately Harry noticed the discrepancy. The corridor held several rooms with another staircase at the end on his left which went down to what he assumed was the kitchen if Draco was telling the truth.

Three rooms up until the one in front of the staircase looked all right, but the right side was a mess with its blackened walls, visible ceiling beams and a floor littered with debris. Charred pieces of wood were scattered around with clumps of grey brick and the paper was peeling off the walls where it hadn't been completely scorched away yet. The walls still remaining had several large cracks running through them; one of which was so deep Harry could see part of the room even from his position near the stairs.

Draco followed his wide eyed gaze and smiled wryly. "Ten years ago a fire destroyed half of the first and the second floor and the manor was declared unhabitable, forcing the family to move out."

"This is so weird," Harry muttered, feeling somewhat unbalanced. "The rooms downstairs look all so immaculate still, but this part …"

"Yes, not a pretty sight, huh?"

"Did they figure out what caused the fire?"

"Some say the fire broke out because of a short circuit when cords were connected in the wrong way."

Harry looked at him and furrowed his eyebrows, noticing the distant look in Draco's eyes. "And others?"

Draco cocked his head to the left ."You really want to know?"

"Well yeah, otherwise I wouldn't ask."

"Others say the fire was set on purpose to disguise a murder," Draco stated frankly.

"The hell? Who was murdered then? Wouldn't it be obvious if someone was murdered?" Was this some kind of urban legend? Wouldn't it be known if someone had been murdered here?

"When the fire broke out, the parents escaped, but they couldn't find their son. They reported him missing, but up until today they haven't found him," Draco explained, his forehead creased in a deep frown and his arms crossed.

"That doesn't mean he was murdered," Harry pointed out. "Could be that he ran away or someone else picked him up."

"Could be," Draco agreed. "Though there are rumours that a girl he rejected became so furious that she stabbed him and set fire to hide the evidence. Anyway, I'm just telling you what they say. You want to look around there?"

Harry couldn't help but eye the ruined side sceptically. "That doesn't look sturdy anymore. Is it even safe to look around there?"

"I've been through that corridor many times before without once falling down or hurting myself, so it's safe enough. Or are you too scared to go there?" Draco smirked; his eyes glinting teasingly.

"I'm not scared!" Harry bristled immediately. "Just don't fancy falling through the floor, that's all."

"You won't," Draco reassured him. "Like I said, I've been there several times before and I never had an accident. It's fine."

"Well, all right then," Harry said doubtfully and warily approached the scorched floor.

"Most of the rooms here have nothing inside anymore because of the fire, but there's one room here which still has something interesting left," Draco said, stepping over a thin wooden beam which was blocking the corridor.

"Oh? Interesting in which way?" Harry asked curiously.

The teasing smile Draco threw him had his cheeks reddening. "You'll see," the blond remarked mysteriously and led Harry to the end of the corridor, where a door was half collapsed, blocking the entrance partly.

"It's in here," Draco announced and stepped over the door; dirt and debris crunching underneath his shoes.

It was a bedroom, Harry realised, the charred remains of a poster bed greeting him first when he pointed his torch at it.

It took him a bit longer to step over the door, juggling both the torch and the camera, but then he was inside; the floorboard creaking but surprisingly holding his weight.

Still he was careful as he walked deeper into the room, testing out the floor each time before he stepped further. The nightstand was nothing but rubble and the wardrobe was half burnt away, some scraps of clothes the only evidence that it had been a wardrobe in the first place. Some hard covers of books had survived the fire miraculously, but the books themselves had been burnt away. He could barely make out the title _The Portrait of Dorian Gray_ on one of them and spent a moment filming the couple of other covers before rising up again.

"So where's this interesting thing you wanted to show me?" he inquired, figuring it couldn't be the old book covers.

Draco was waiting on the other end of the bed and pointed at something on the floor. "Here, this."

Curiosity mounting, Harry walked around the remains of the bed and aimed his torch light at the floor, expecting to see a jewel perhaps or even a picture frame which had survived the fire.

Instead, his torchlight landed on the charred remains of a –

_**Human body with a knife sticking out of its neck.** _

"What the actual fuck, Draco?!" he yelled shocked, horrified, and whirled around, wanting to know what the fuck the guy had been thinking to lead him to a dead body instead of calling the police.

But when he turned around, nobody was there.

* * *

Three hours later, back home, he was still pretty shaken up and his hands wouldn't stop trembling when he put down his camera on the desk.

After seeing the burnt body he had run away, fleeing out of the manor as if the devil himself was chasing after him. He had called the police first and then his parents, waiting at the beginning of the street for them to show up.

The police had taken his statement, short as it had been, and then he had been allowed to go home. All the way home, mum had been fussing over him, but he had done nothing but sit there and stare outside; the image of the burnt body etched onto his eyelids.

Why the fuck had Draco thought that would have been interesting to show him? Why hadn't he called the police when he had found the body? And where the hell was that bastard? He had been right there when Harry had gone to take a look, so how had he disappeared so fast?

Had he been hiding in one of the other rooms? If so, why? Why show Harry something so fucking horrifying only to disappear and hide elsewhere?

Was this his form of a fucked up Halloween prank?

"Fuck this night," he muttered, rubbing briskly over his eyes.

He dropped heavily down in his chair and after a long moment of debating with himself, he turned on his laptop and removed the memory card from the camera. He wasn't really in the mood to edit the video, not when he knew what the end of it would show, but he was also too jittery to go to sleep yet and he couldn't focus on one of his books.

Editing the video it was then.

It was when he had reached the scene in the parlour that he realised something was off.

"Wait a second," he muttered and leant closer to the screen, rewinding the video. "The fuck?"

Growing more and more bewildered, he let the video continue, figuring it was just a fluke, but no.

Draco didn't show up in the video at all.

Harry could hear himself talking to him, but the blond guy didn't appear in the video, even though he was certain the camera had landed on Draco several times. What was more – he couldn't hear Draco's replies either, no matter how high he turned up the volume.

What the fuck was going on here?

The camera picked up the rooms perfectly, so if it was a glitch, it was a very peculiar one. Why wasn't Draco showing up? Why couldn't he hear his answers?

He stared at a frozen shot of the staircase for a while before abruptly exiting the screen and going to google instead. As if acting on their own, his fingers typed in, _'Draco, Rose Park Street'_ and hit enter.

What he read next had him slamming shut his laptop and crawling in his bed; his heartbeat loud in his ear as he pulled the blankets tightly over his head.

* * *

**Malfoy Heir Presumed Missing or Dead**

_A fire broke out late last night in the Malfoy Manor in Rose Park Street. The fire brigade arrived on time, but couldn't prevent the fire from destroying the first and second floor._

_Lucius Malfoy and his wife Narcissa Malfoy escaped the flames timely, but their son, Draco, was nowhere to be found. Officials assume he ran away, but the couple insists that cannot be the case as their son isn't known to do that._

_Did Draco Malfoy run away after all or is there another explanation? The police will be investigating the scene in search for possible clues. The family in the meantime asks the public to keep an eye out for their son. The most recent picture of him is included with this article._

Accompanying the article was a picture of a blond, young man with light coloured eyes and a faint smirk gracing his face, dressed in a light blue shirt and dark trousers. The picture bore one single name underneath it.

_Draco Malfoy_.

**The End**

**Author's Note:**

> AN2: What do you think? Fitting enough for Halloween? :P
> 
> Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
> 
> I hope to see you all back in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
> 
> Cuddles
> 
> Melissa


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